Coming Clean at Christmas
by Lori2279
Summary: Rebecca makes a confession


Okay so I changed the back story a little. If you haven't go read the second chapter of Leaving Oz. Then this will make better sense.

Rebecca hummed 'Away in a Manger' as she rocked Ember True in her arms near the window of the nursery. As she neared the end of the song the baby in her arms yawned and shifted but her eyes stayed wide open as they gazed up at her mother.

"You're not going to sleep are you," Rebecca softly asked her daughter. "You are not going to even attempt to fall asleep unless I sing that infernal song, are you? If I had known what would happen, I would never have taken you, or your sister, anywhere near a Q Thanksgiving." She sighed before she began. "We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. He hastens and chastens his will to make known. The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name he forgets not his own." Rebecca sighed again, this time with relief as the little girl in her arms drifted off to sleep. She kept humming as she carried Ember over to the crib and set her down. "G'night baby girl," she whispered. A quick check of the other crib told her Lorelai Rose was still fast asleep and then she backed her way to the door and out into the hall. As she shut the door she let out the breath she'd been holding in and looked towards the ceiling mouthing 'Thank you' before she headed down the hall to her own room for some sleep.

Just as she'd pulled back her covers to slide into bed she heard Boudicca barking.

"Shoot," she murmured as she hot footed it down the stairs and through the living room to the front porch. Her 'shh' was out of her mouth before she'd even gotten the screen door open to let her onto the wraparound porch of her home. She could hear Bronx's growling and the whimpers of the puppies that were gathered around their parents. "Boudicca, hush. Bronx, it's okay. It's just Mr. McGregor and his sons re-enacting the Battle of Bull Run again."

"Bec," a voice said from the darkness of her front yard. She turned just as the person it belonged to stepped into a patch of silvery moon light and stopped to wait for her reaction.

"You're early," she said before she ran down the stairs and across the lawn to jump into his arms.

Ethan caught her and held her tight, "It's good to see you too, Bec."

"You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow," Rebecca smiled.

"Came a little early to discuss some family business," he told her.

"What kind of family business?"

"You heard who resurfaced in Port Charles?"

"You mean that psychopath who got Michael shot? Yeah, I heard."

"Let's go inside," Ethan motioned. "I think I hear that neighbor you told me about."

"One day, I swear I'm going to live somewhere where I have normal people living around me."

"It's good to have goals," Ethan said as they went inside.

"Go pour us something to drink. I don't want anything hard but if you do, it's in the cabinet above the fridge."

"Where are you going?"

"To make sure the girls are still asleep," Rebecca said over her shoulder.

Ethan made his way into the kitchen and found a bottle whiskey above the fridge and a bottle of soda in the fridge. He poured them each into a glass and sat down to wait for Rebecca.

"Still asleep," he asked when she sat across from him.

"Yes, thank God. I keep having to sing the Quartermaine Thanksgiving song to them."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh it's wonderful," Rebecca smiled. "So, what's this family business we need to discuss?"

"Well, like I said, Claudia turned up right after Thanksgiving. She was arrested and she'll be going to trial in a few months. The thing is, there was an attempt made on Michael's life a few weeks ago."

"And you think it was Claudia's father's men?" Rebecca knew how unlikely that was. She'd done some studying on the mob families that operated in and around Port Charles so she'd know what she was dealing with when she got there. She'd gone all the way back to the twenties and a man named Marco Flynn, who had gotten life in prison after killing a small time thug named Sean Murphy after Murphy had ordered a hit on Marco that had ended up killing Marco's best friend instead. Her research had also included the fact that Anthony Zacchara hated his daughter and would most likely be leading the charge against her if he weren't in a facility for the criminally insane.

"Actually no," Ethan told her. "John's been very forthcoming with information and he's of the opinion it's their uncle Rudy from Milan who's been trying to silence Michael."

"So, why don't Sonny and Jason just put Michael in a safe house?"

"Well, that's another problem. Claudia was married to Sonny."

"So, Claudia would know all the places Sonny would send Michael."

"Exactly," Ethan nodded. "But, she wouldn't suspect that they'd send him here."

"What?"

"Look, I know it's a lot to ask."

"That's not it, Ethan. I'd take Michael. He was Emily's nephew and godson," Rebecca said.

"But?"

"But, right after New Years, the girls and I are heading to Alaska."

"Alaska? For what?"

"A little vacation. I've always wanted to see it and I think now would be a good time," Rebecca said, leaving out the fact that her mother, aunt, and sisters and their families would be there too. Anna's sister Alex's husband Dimitri Marick had bought a compound in southern Alaska years ago and was more than willing to open it up to them all. Not to mention, she didn't really think Sonny or Jason would want Michael living with a nurse who worked for the WSB. "So, while I would love to take Michael, I don't think him being here alone is what Sonny and Jason had in mind."

"Can't you wait?"

"The tickets are non-refundable."

"Oh," Ethan deflated.

"I'm sorry Ethan."

"So am I," Ethan said. "Wait. Take Michael with you."

"What?"

"Take him to Alaska with you."

"I can't do that," Rebecca said.

"Why not? I'm sure Sonny would pay for it. He'll give Michael a false name and put him on a plane. He can meet you there."

"He can't do that."

"Why not?"

Rebecca got up from her chair. The room suddenly felt much too small.

"Bec?"

Rebecca sighed, "Oh God."

"What's wrong?"

She turned around to face Ethan, "The girls and I are meeting up with some people in Alaska and these are people Sonny does not want his kid around."

"Why? Are you meeting with rival mobsters?"

"No. I'm meeting with my family and some of them are government agents."

"What?"

Rebecca sat back down, "If I tell you, you have to _swear_, you won't tell anyone, ever."

"I swear," Ethan said. "Nobody. Not ever."

"Okay," Rebecca sighed. "I wasn't Hank and Paige Bowen's daughter."

"What are you talking about? Yes, you were. I saw the birth certificate."

"Paige gave birth to me, yes. But I wasn't hers biologically. Neither was Emily."

"Okay."

"Have you ever heard of the Jerome family? I know Luke wasn't around then but he might've heard something about them."

"Mob family, right? Luke said Victor Jerome was bonkers over a friend of his, Lucy Coe."

"Right. Anyway, Victor's daughter Olivia was insane and in love with a man named Duke Lavery, who was married to Robin Scorpio's mother, Anna. But Duke was totally in love with Anna and he wasn't going anywhere. Anyway once Olivia realized that she decided to bump him off by rigging an elevator. Only Anna got in instead and well she was pregnant and she was told after the crash that she miscarried only she didn't. The fetuses were transplanted to Paige Bowen who was told after the birth that one of us had died."

"You."

"Me," Rebecca nodded. "Then there was paperwork drawn up to make it look like Paige and Hank had sold me to the Shaws."

"Which you found and then made your way to Port Charles," Ethan finished.

"Not exactly," Rebecca said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was so mad when I found those papers. I thought my-the Bowens didn't want me. I didn't know that they were never given a chance to want or not want me. I just stormed out of the house. I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to get away from everything that was inside of me. I thought if I drove fast enough or far enough, all my thoughts would leave me. I never saw the truck running the stop sign."

"You were in a car accident."

"A bad one and, ironically enough, it was on the same night Diego Alcazar strangled Emily at the Black and White Ball."

"Are you kidding?"

"No." Rebecca bit her lip. "When I woke up, I was in Doc Holliday Memorial Hospital."

"Where's that?"

"It's in Chicago on the south side. Nobody knows it's there unless you know what to look for."

"So, what is it? Some kind of special hospital for whatever injury you had?"

"No. Ethan, have you ever heard of the WSB?"

"WSB? In passing from Luke, why?"

"Because my mother is Anna Devane and she _was_ WSB and now I am a WSB nurse who works in a WSB hospital."

"What?"

"I'm not interested in field work anymore. I refuse to let my job put my kids in danger. As far as anyone around here knows I work at Elizabeth Blackwell Hospital, a private facility and I have two kids that I'm raising on my own because their father can't be bothered."

"Why aren't you interested in field work anymore?"

"Because the last time I tried it, it was a spectacular failure. I got too involved and I got pregnant."

"Nikolas was a field assignment?"

"Not Nikolas per say; more along the lines of his uncle Valentine."

"What were you supposed to do? Break into the family archives?"

"No. I was supposed to get close enough to Nikolas that I would be considered something he'd be willing to fight to get back so Valentine would take me if he wanted to get Nikolas' attention."

"So what happened?"

"I let you get involved. When you approached me, my superior thought it was a good idea to go with your con. He never figured on you telling Lucky our 'plan' and nearly blowing everything."

"Oh man. I nearly got you killed."

"No. You gave me a graceful exit and whether you know it or not, you saved me from getting in too deep."

"How?"

"When you and Lulu rescued Luke and Helena that summer, it scared Valentine back into hiding. There's been no sign of him since then and I got pulled from Port Charles. I was already pregnant, so I was sent down here to work at the hospital. After they were born, they wanted to know if I wanted back into the field. I said no. They assigned me here permanently." Rebecca sighed. "There's more."

"I don't know that I can take much more."

"I wasn't alone when I woke up."

"Your mother was there?"

"No. She came later. My sister was there. Emily's not dead."

"She was strangled. People saw her body. They checked her pulse."

"They brought her back. You wouldn't believe some of the medical wonders the agency has at its disposal."

"So, why didn't she just go back to Nikolas?"

"Because by the time we got well enough to leave the hospital, Nikolas was banging Nadine and Emily had fallen for another man whose family hadn't tried to kill her on several occasions."

"Excuse me?"

"Lucky ever tell you about Emily's first husband?"

"Wasn't he killed in a police shoot-out?"

"Yes, but he was saved."

"By the WSB?"

"No. The DVX. Anna was his trainer so he was with her when she came to see us. By that time we knew my car accident was no accident and that Diego Alcazar was just a hired hand."

"Hired," Ethan looked confused for a moment before his face cleared. "Helena."

"Helena. It's not the first time she's tried to kill Emily and if she knew Emily was still alive I'm sure it wouldn't be the last time. The plan was to kill a few or attempt to kill a few women before he killed Emily. Then he was supposed to split town under the idea that he thought he'd be killed by Jason for killing his sister once it was discovered that Anthony hadn't killed her."

"How do you know all this?"

"One of Helena's former henchmen."

"Aren't they more loyal?"

"It's amazing what men will tell you when you electrodes attached to their gonads."

"Oh."

"But Diego went rogue when he killed Georgie Jones. She wasn't part of the plan and if he hadn't accidentally hung himself during that fight with Nikolas, I think Frisco would've killed him."

"Frisco?"

"Maxie and Georgie's biological father."

"The jittery blonde who hangs out with that computer geek?"

"That's Maxie. And that computer geek? Jason would freak if he knew how close his hacker came to being recruited by the WSB. We took Zander from DVX instead."

"And he and Emily?"

"They are living in Paris in a little home in a version of a gated community."

"And will they be joining the family celebration?"

"Yeah. Anna had to tell Robin and Patrick everything and swear them to secrecy. It was a bit of a shock to them both but it has sort of been done before by another doctor."

"Who?"

"Some nut did it back in the seventies or something. He did an abortion on someone and then took the egg and implanted it in his own wife."

"Interesting," Ethan nodded before he drained his glass.

"Gonna have another one?"

"Nah. It's late and I have a feeling I'll have to be sociable soon."

Rebecca smiled and then sighed, "Look Ethan, I will completely understand if you want to walk away and forget you ever met me."

"Yeah, right," Ethan smiled. "We all have secrets, Bec. Yours are just a little more interesting than most."

"Thanks."

"Consider it a Christmas gift," he said.

"Speaking of Christmas, Edward doesn't know about any of this and Monica just knows her daughter is alive, well, and very happy living as far away from the Cassadine family and Port Charles as she can get."

"Noted."

"Thank you."

"Consider it a Christmas present."


End file.
